Ontopic 2020 Eat Your Veggies - GARDEN THREAD

wetwillie

Know-It-All Pee-Paw
May 24, 2018
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The Zombie apocolypse is upon us. Stores are running out of food. Now is the time to start your garden!!!
Pictured - 6'W X6' tall X 24" deep shelving unit. Top 2 shelves each have 4 trays on heat mats, with 5, 4' T8 LED growbulbs. The lights are attached to "yo-yos" which are spring-loaded devices for maintaining the height of lights in hydro grows.
Lower 2 shelves have mushrooms growing in them. "Lion's Mane", which look a lot like zombiebrains.
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:)
 
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I have lots of room for a garden now but no garden.
Never too late to start. Most dried beans at the grocery are just fine for planting and will be short/bush beans. Lentils and chickpeas are short 3'-ish vines.
You're down south, you don;t need to go to the extremes of starting shit early like I have. The four trays are peppers and a few eggplants. Tomatoes can wait another 10 days to get started. I'll do a third level on top with some other stuff - kale, Brussels sprouts and ground cherries(hips will remember).
GOt about 100 garlics and 50 shallots coming up I planted last fall. FUck all else to do. *Been making more glass stuff.
 
Mmm ground cherries!


"Might" start something a little later, might not. Might just keep building/finding more dirt and do the fall season (pretty much 2 growing seasons here).

The dirt here sucks but I'm up to 3 giant trashcans of compost and a big pile of half rotted down leaves and bedding hay from rabbits and chicken I keep adding to. And a sunny spot for a ~12 x 30 or so raised bed.
Need to bring in some actual dirt to mix in with all the rotting stuff.
 
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Mmm ground cherries!
FUck yes!!! I got all the stuff for a raised bed, plan is to make a RB of 4X 24', super-crop those pricks about 8-10" apart. I keep seeing article online and they are like,"they sprawl, plant at least 2'3' apart." NO U!! Plant them close, they support each other and production isn't really compromised. Planted like that they are a hella lot more productive than strawberries. I figure a bed that size will produce 2-3 gallons/wk, for 8+ weeks. The strawberries should feel threatened. Dole(the banana peeps) is trying to breed a ground cherry twice as big, they figure they will be commercially viable at that point. *Apparently they have an anti-oxidant found in almost no other plant.
 
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FUck yes!!! I got all the stuff for a raised bed, plan is to make a RB of 4X 24', super-crop those pricks about 8-10" apart. I keep seeing article online and they are like,"they sprawl, plant at least 2'3' apart." NO U!! Plant them close, they support each other and production isn't really compromised. Planted like that they are a hella lot more productive than strawberries. I figure a bed that size will produce 2-3 gallons/wk, for 8+ weeks. The strawberries should feel threatened. Dole(the banana peeps) is trying to breed a ground cherry twice as big, they figure they will be commercially viable at that point. *Apparently they have an anti-oxidant found in almost no other plant.


Hey man, somebody was telling me about a raised bed deal they called "lasagna", presumably because it's layered.

Basically put down a bunch of old cardboard, newspapers, etc. on the bottom. Could layer them up like a foot or more even, then your regular dirt on top of that. All the paper stuff helps hold moisture, which is a lot bigger issue here than drainage, and over time rots down and becomes more dirt.

What think you?
Mix some manure or fertilizer in with the paper?
Do more thinner layers, like paper/dirt/paper/dirt?
Do straw bales instead?


If it works I could come up with enough cardboard/paper in a day or two I'd only need half the dirt I think I do.
 
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Hey man, somebody was telling me about a raised bed deal they called "lasagna", presumably because it's layered.

Basically put down a bunch of old cardboard, newspapers, etc. on the bottom. Could layer them up like a foot or more even, then your regular dirt on top of that. All the paper stuff helps hold moisture, which is a lot bigger issue here than drainage, and over time rots down and becomes more dirt.

What think you?
Mix some manure or fertilizer in with the paper?
Do more thinner layers, like paper/dirt/paper/dirt?
Do straw bales instead?


If it works I could come up with enough cardboard/paper in a day or two I'd only need half the dirt I think I do.
I have really sandy soil so I use cardboard on top to hold in moisture and have virtually no weeding. But cardboard on the bottom is good since it will grab nutrients that would just filter deeper into the soil, beyond the roots possibly. Bad thing about cardboard it burns through a lot of your nitrogen. Although, with chicken and rabbit shit that probably isn't an issue. Alternating layers is a quick way to build some better soil.
I used 7-8 refrigerator and washer/dryer boxes on top last year. Couldn't find a trace of them except a few pieces of tape I missed pulling off.
 
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I have really sandy soil so I use cardboard on top to hold in moisture and have virtually no weeding. But cardboard on the bottom is good since it will grab nutrients that would just filter deeper into the soil, beyond the roots possibly. Bad thing about cardboard it burns through a lot of your nitrogen. Although, with chicken and rabbit shit that probably isn't an issue. Alternating layers is a quick way to build some better soil.
I used 7-8 refrigerator and washer/dryer boxes on top last year. Couldn't find a trace of them except a few pieces of tape I missed pulling off.

10-4
I'll do it the more, thinner layer way.
Down to one chicken but gonna get 3 or 4 more here pretty soon.
2 rabbits can make a lot of poop. Those and I think goats or sheep are ones you can just add to the soil directly. Most others you'd do between seasons or compost first as it can be really strong and burn the plants. Needs some time to "cure" first.

That'll get us going a lot faster as it'd probably take another year to build enough to fill the whole thing with all dirt.

Gonna take down the greenhouse next weekend (it's covering part of where the bed goes) then go dumpster diving.
 
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Just pulled out all the shit from the raised bed yesterday. Still got some good ground cover going from the strawberry and mint vines.

Gonna put up another one this spring, just got to get the kids started on levelling the ground for it.
 
@HipHugHer @OOD - wife wants me to get some chickens. IDK, seem like a bit of work. What say yeah?

Doesn't seem like much work to me after you're set up for it, though it can be a good bit of work getting yourself to that point.

Need a coop though it doesn't have to be large. And a fenced in place to run, including the top because Hawks, owls, etc. And down into the ground for things that dig if you want to keep them completely protected.

You can just let them roam free and they'll come back to the coop or wherever they roost at night but you will lose some to predators, neighbors dogs, etc.

Once everything is established they take care of themselves pretty well, not much fuss at all.


Some tips.....


- don't use chicken wire for chickens, use 1/2" pattern "hardware cloth" or other small pattern wire. Raccoons can reach through the holes in chicken wire and grab them.


-. When/if you add new birds to the flock, have a place to quarantine and monitor them for 30 days first so you don't inadvertently bring in some disease/infection and spread it to all of them.


-. If you only have a few birds, look up what a "chicken tractor" is, see if that interests you. Can move them around the yard so they have fresh ground to peck at. And it's not a "permanent structure" if there's some building code thing that applies.


-. Go to www.backyardchickens.com and start reading. Everything you'll ever need to know there.
 
These chicken setups can go from dirt simple, scrounged material, almost free to incredibly elaborate, artsyfartsy, and spendy. Find something that works for you.

Having your first breakfast of those rich, golden yolk, fresh eggs you got from your own birds and watching your wife smile and giggle as they follow her around the yard and it's all worth it.
 
Duck is perfect meat. All darkmeat.
So much fat.

Love duck. And goose.


Dig a pond and let the grass grow up around it. Then you can have ducks and don't have to mow anymore.

Can just sink a kiddie pool in the ground, doesn't have to be huge or deep.
 
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So fucking sad. So, I went into Tractor Supply with joy in my heart "I'm gonna raise me some chickens." TC closes at 6 om, will be closed for at least 3 weeks due to whole state lockdown starting at midnight. Chicks weren't moving.
They summarily. :( :(
 
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